Express News Service
Forty six-year-old Ravi Shankar V was walking out of a theatre with his wife after watching animation film, Arjun the Warrior Prince, and could not seem to control his tears. On being questioned by his wife, he told her that it was his desire to make an animation film, to which his wife urged him to follow his heart. Finally, this HR professional with no prior film-making experience, realised his wish with Punyakoti—India’s first animation film in Sanskrit.
Ravi’s path seemed to be strewn with challenges, for Sanskrit was hardly the common man’s tongue and he did not even have a nodding acquaintance with it. “The language is out of common circulation. This is why I wished to make the film in Sanskrit. When I roamed across Europe, I saw there was a museum dedicated to Tintin. If a comic character could be accorded such an honour, why not Sanskrit,” says Ravi, who began studying Sanskrit after he turned 40.
Also, animation seemed an untouchable subject as far as producers were concerned. He was told, when the high-voltage Kochaidayan starring Rajinikanth failed, what hope was there for him. “Then, former Infosys board member TV Mohandas Pai suggested me to try crowdfunding. Through Wishberry, an online platform where people can run campaigns to raise funds, I managed to gather `40 lakh after a three-month campaign, and the rest I invested from personal fund.”Punyakoti is based on a famous Kannada folk song that children learn from the cradle. It’s about a cow that always speaks the truth, and even prefers to sacrifice itself to a hungry tiger in its bid to uphold the truth.
Ravi says, “Once, when I was going home by bus in Chennai, I happened to listen to the ‘Punyakoti’ song courtesy a colleague of mine. At the end of the song, I was teary-eyed. And that was when my friend told me that the song had evinced a similar reaction from millions of people.” So much so that a few years down the line when Ravi set out to make his animation film, he did not have to search hard for a subject.
Once the hurdle of funds passed, Ravi began work in 2016. “I decided to get 100 animators on board, with each animator readying a one-minute work, which would collectively help me put together the film. But later, I realised that the work comes highly specialised, and it did not pan out the way I had imagined. Now, I know a 100 different ways of how not to make an animation film,” says Ravi.
Veteran composer Ilaiyaraaja has scored the music for the film. Ravi had gone to Ilaiyaraaja’s house with a film producer acting as a Malayalam translator. “But Ilaiyaraaja knew the language. Later, when I read out the story, he agreed to give the music. Actors Revathi and Roger Narayan (last seen in the Kannada movie U-turn) as well as S R Leela, a college professor proficient in Sanskrit, are also a part of the film.
The 90-minute film is now in its post-production stage. “Come July/August, we are hoping to enter the film into international film festivals after which there will be a theatrical release,” says Ravi.Another movie in the future seems like a tall task for Ravi, who works as a senior solution head, HR and Digital Transformation at Infosys. “The present film has taken a toll on me, and my wife’s made a lot of sacrifice too. Making Punyakoti has been an eyeopener,” says Ravi, who has been getting offers to write scripts.
Source: The New Indian Express